mUltimate Chopin

Text Compare Notes Sources Description

Issues : Errors repeated in EE

b. 17-20

composition: Op. 28 No. 19, Prelude in E♭ major

..

In A (→FC,FE) there are no flats lowering D to D in b. 17, g to g in b. 18 and 20 and d2 to d2 in b. 18. Some of them were added in GE (only both in b. 18) and EE1 (all in the L.H.); however, it is only EE2 that contains the correct text.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Accidentals in different octaves , GE revisions , Inaccuracies in A , Errors repeated in GE , Errors repeated in FE , Errors repeated in EE

b. 19

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

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None of the sources includes a  restoring b1 in the 3rd to last demisemiquaver. A comparison with two previous appearances of that bar – b. 1 and 5 (b. 2 is marked in an abridged manner as a repetition of b. 1) – proves that it was Chopin's mistake in A, not noticed in any of the remaining sources.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Editorial revisions

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration , Errors of A , Errors repeated in GE , Errors repeated in FE , Errors repeated in EE

b. 19

composition: Op. 28 No. 17, Prelude in A♭ major

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The  before the top note of the last R.H. quaver appears only in FCI. This produces no error in A and the sources retaining the original arrange­ment of chords – FC and GE – for an appropriate  appears on the upper staff before the 2nd L.H. quaver. However, in FE (→EE) which printed the entire L.H. part on the lower staff (as in our transcriptions), the accidental should have been added, but was not.

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Differences between sources

issues: Errors in FE , Errors repeated in EE

b. 20

composition: Op. 44, Polonaise in F♯ minor

Grace notes A-B and A-B in GE1 & EE2

Grace notes A-B and A-B in FE & GE2

Grace notes A-B and A-B in EE1
..

Out of the three source versions of the double grace notes present both before the 3rd trill and after it, it is only one that is correct – A-B before and A-B after. It results from a comparison of this bar with four repetitions thereof in b. 46, 72, 279 and 305:

  • this is the only version appearing – in b. 46 – in both editions based directly on the manuscripts, hence GE1 and FE1;
  • in GE1 this version is in all those places;
  • no musical reasons support the introduction of different versions of such details in the course of the Polonaise;
  • the different versions of FE can be explained by mistakes of the copyist or of the engraver.

In the discussed bar the missing  in GE2 is an oversight of the engraver, while the  instead of a  in EE1 – most probably a mistake, rectified in EE2.

category imprint: Differences between sources

issues: EE revisions , Errors in FE , Errors in GE , GE revisions , Errors repeated in EE

b. 21

composition: Op. 28 No. 8, Prelude in F♯ minor

..

In the sources, there are no accidentals before the first and last notes of the 3rd L.H. figure. Therefore, the bottom one should be interpreted as a due to the  in the previous figure (it is particularly clear in the notation of the sources, in which the 3rd figure is still written in the bass clef). Naturally, it is Chopin's oversight – the harmonic context requires the notes to be interpreted as a1 and a; in such a situation, the top one does not need a , and Chopin considered an accidental next to the bottom one superfluous in such cases (cf. b. 3-4). In the main text we add a cautionary  also next to a1. 

category imprint: Interpretations within context; Editorial revisions

issues: Omissions to cancel alteration , Inaccuracies in A , Errors repeated in GE , Errors repeated in FE , Errors repeated in EE